Escape Vector
Escape Vector is a 2-D flight game, where players must adhere to rules of momentum and gravity in order to prevent themselves or their cargo from crashing or otherwise being destroyed, while evading obstacles and enemy traps. Common Controls *'Left arrow' - Turn Left *'Right arrow' - Turn Right *'Up arrow' - Thrust *'Ctrl' - Shoot *'Shift or Spacebar' - Use Shield *'Enter or R or Alt' - Shoot Rock Buster *'M' - Open Minimap The OSS Katsuro is a single-engine, triangular ship that can spin freely about its center-point (independent of what, if anything, is being towed). Thrusting will cause the ship to accelerate in the direction it is pointing, but that ship also experiences forces due to gravity, enemy alien pods and the inertia of any towed object. Towing To tether to an object, land gently (with the nose pointing upward) within one or two shiplengths from it. Most power-ups are gathered by tethering (with the exception of the fuel pod, where you land on the pod's platform). Furthermore, most are automatically drawn into the ship for use instead of being towed: TNT is an exception. After tethering to a towable object (such as the cargo or TNT), the object will be in tow once you lift off. Once an object is in tow, if that object touches any other object (no matter how gently), it will be destroyed and the tether removed. An important consideration when mastering towing is that the tether between object and ship is fixed, such that the distance between object and ship is constant. This is different from a soft tether (such as rope) which only governs the maximum distance between objects. A yo-yo is an example of a soft tether. Were it tethered to one's finger and dangling down, one would expect that raising the finger would pull the yo-yo upward; however, rapidly lowering the finger would not cause the yo-yo to drop any faster than by gravity. The tether in Escape Vector does not follow this expectation, which adds to both the strategy and challenge of controlling the ship. Shield The shield in Escape Vector acts as a protective bubble against collisions with either terrain or other objects (including enemy bullets). The shield does not absorb the energy of impact, meaning momentum is conserved: if you hit a wall at a rapid speed and while activating the shield, you will bounce off of the wall at the same relative speed, but a different direction. This happens to be the mechanism by which Speed Nitwit is achieved. Similarly, using the shield against a seeker will cause some opposite rebound. Shooting Bullets (and Rock Busters) in Escape Vector are not instantaneous: they take time to reach their target. As a result, they are affected by the velocity of the ship when the shot is fired. It is important to compensate for the ship's velocity when aiming. However, bullets are not affected by gravity. Bullets can be fired quickly at no cost, so it is often advantageous to blanket a target with many bullets. Powerups There are various useful powerups in the game. All of them except fuel are worth 1,000 points on top of their specific effect. A fuel depot can be destroyed by bullet or rock buster to score 500 points, but should be preserved until you know you will no longer need it to refuel. Ship upgrades last until the end of the level. TNT is carried by the cable like a crate and explodes when it touches land. Alien Infrastructure There are various items of alien infrastructure which attempt to kill you either by making you lose control of your ship or by actively attacking you. Modes There are 4 different modes in the game: Retrieval Easy, Retrieval Hard, Retribution and Simulator. Retrieval In Retrieval, you are tasked with flying the OSS Katsuro into a sub-surface cavern, locating and tethering stolen cargo, and then flying back above the surface with the cargo in tow. If, when the ship passes a certain altitude, the cargo is intact and in tow, the mission is successful. At all other times, the level is restarted with no penalty. Hence, if the cargo is lost at any point, one can return to the surface and restart the level without sacrificing a life or points. You are granted three lives (the game ends the third time your ship is destroyed). Dialog :Sit down, Commander. Prepare for mission briefing. :As you know, Aliens broke into Earth's most advanced weapons and technology installation. They used cloaking devices and would have made good their escape... :...had our most powerful items not had tracking devices fitted, allowing us to track the aliens to their home system. :Your mission is to take your ship, the OSS Katsuro, into the caves where our devices are being stored. You must overcome the aliens' defences and recover the equipment. :Our emergency rescue teleporter has enough power for two transmissions. The aliens will attempt to stop you, and we can only save your life twice... :...so we are relying on your skills as a pilot to win the day for Earth. Levels This level set is available to all players, and contains the following levels: Normal An easier version of Retrieval - Hard, it was released on 22 July as the default level mode was rather hard. Hard The first version of Escape Vector, it was the only mode available until the 22 July update. Retribution :Congratulations, commander. You have recovered Earth's most advanced technologies from the mysterious aliens. :Unfortunately, the aliens had time to analyse and duplicate some of our stolen weapons technology. :They are now quickly amassing an armada, ready to strike at Earth. :Earth's defences need time to prepare for repelling the alien invasion. :Given your location in the alien home system, you have been ordered to do all in your powers to delay the alien arms build-up, and give Earth time to prepare. Unlike the Retrieval levels, your ship is now armed with a tri-shot and a boosted engine, along with more-than usual fuel/shields, at the start of each level. On your minimap (opened by hitting the M key ingame), you'll see powerups/fuel depots as yellow squares, while targets are in red. You must destroy the red targets to complete the level. On some of the levels a self-destruct mechanism will trigger when you destroy the last or deepest target, and will give you a time limit to escape. This level set is members only, and contains the following levels: Simulator Definitely not recommended for beginners, the Simulator levels are the hardest levels of the game. They can be completed in any order (16 levels), and are retrofitted with a new colour scheme, which is green for walls, enemies, and your ship. Missions are either Retrieval or Retribution style. This level set is members only, and contains the following levels: Achievements Trivia *This is the first (currently only) game to have achievements that do not give exactly 100 orb points per orb coin, as well as the first to give an odd multiple of 50 orb points. *In the "Deep Vertigo" level on the Simulator set, when you are close to the end of the level, you can see the image of the Vertigo 2 avatar that you play with in the game. __NOWYSIWYG__ de:Fluchtvektor Category:Action Games Category:Single Player Games Category:All Games Category:Games with achievements with duplicate names